Striking device for golfers



NOV# 3, 1959 G. L. BUTLER 2,911,221v

' sTRIxING DEVICE: FOR GoLFERs Filed June 18, 1957 a fa J9 25 2d v/ 20 nINVENTOR.

2,911,221 Patented Nov. 3, 19H59 United States 192mmLA This inventionrelates to striking devices which are for the hose 12 and has a threadedhole 25 formedv vertically downwardly therein, a setscrew 26 beingscrewed downwardly in said hole. y v

vWhen a short butt portion 27 of the hose 12 is extended into thereceptacle portion 18 of the pipe: 17 Vthere is a free space 28 of about1/8 of an inch between said hose and said pipe. The portion 27 of thebase 12 is preferably about an inch and a quarter long and the spaceabout this portion within the receptacle 18 is approximately illed by aleather bushing 29 which is inserted in the receptacle 18 `toencirclethe hose end portion .'27

as clearly shown Vin Figs. 3 and 4. A core in the form provided to ai'dthe golfer in perfecting his accuracy especially with the wood clubs.

Such-devices are essentially substitutes for a golf ball and are adaptedfor giving exercise in striking with a wood club vwhere space will notpermit the use of golf balls. Y

It is 1an object of the present invention to provide such a strikingdevice which will be relatively inexpensive to manufacture, which may besold at a relatively low price, and which will have a long'life when inuse and be easy to maintain and replace parts thereof which are wornoutby-use. t

It is another object of the invention to provide such a device which maybe applied to the top of the ground or a floor or some other supportingsurface and will notV require an excavation for the installationthereof.

well as further objects and advantages will be made manifest in thefollowing description taken in connection with the accompanyingdrawings, in which;

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a preferred embodiment of the invention asinstalled on the surface of the ground or on a lawn and illustrates howthe invention is employed as a striking device.

Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of the striking device ishown in Fig.l.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional View taken on the line 3 3 of Fig.2.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged longitudinal fragmentary sectional view taken onthe line` 4-4 of Fig. 1.

Referring specifically to the drawings, the invention is thereshown asembodied in a striking device 10 which includes a base 11, a exiblepiece of hose 12 and a hose gripping means 13.

The base 11 includes a front cleat 15 and a back cleat 16, the latterbeing shorter than the front cleat and the two cleats being arranged insymmetrical parallel relation as shown in Fig. l.

The hose 12 is preferably made of live iubber without any fabricreinforcing (such as medical hose which is made of pure latex) and thepiece of hose 12 is preferably about 7 inches long with a 3A inchoutside diameter and an inside diameter of V16 of an inch. The piece ofhose 12 may be slightly curved upwardly lbut it is preferablyArelatively straight. n Y

The hose gripping means 13 preferably comprises a piece of pipe 17 about4 inches long and with an inside diameter of 1 inch. This pipe may bemade of standard l-inch galvanized water pipe and an end portion 18 ofthis pipe is reamedrout to remove burrs and preferably chamferedslightly at 19 as shown in Fig. 4.

Pipe 17 rests upon cleats 15 and 16 with the axis of the pipe lying in avertical plane which passes through the midpoints of these cleats. Pipestraps 20 embrace pipe 17 and are secured to cleats 15 and 16 by screws21 so as to rigidly assemble the pipe 17 on said cleats.

The end portion-18 of pipe 17 comprises a receptacle of .a wooden doy/eis inserted into portion A257 of hose 12 so that the front end of saiddowel terminatesabout a quarter of an inch from the front end oftherbushing 2?. lt will be noted in `Fig. 4 however thatthe dowelyfextendsrpast the setscrew 26 so as to support Vthe hose portion 27from within-against pressure applied by said screw through `the bushing29.

.it will ,benoted in Fig, 2 that the bushing 29 issplit and that thissplit 31 is located in a horizontal plane containing the axis of pipe17.

The clamping of the hose butt portion 27 in the clamp means 13 isaccomplished by tightening on the setscrew 26 which forces the leatherbushing 29 downwardly closing the gap 31 therein and compressing therubber hose portion 27 on the core 30.

At its opposite ends, cleat 15 is provided with nail holes 4t? which arebored in the cleat so as to converge downwardly in a vertical plane atangles of about 30 with the vertical. The angle between these two holesis about A similar hole 41 is bored downwardly in cleat 16 at a midpointtherein. just back of the adjacent end of pipe 17. Hole 41 slantsforwardly at an angle of about 30 with the vertical. When it is desiredto anchor the device 10 on a supporting surface, Vsuch as the surface 45of the ground 46, the device is rested on the ground and ZO-penny spikes47 are driven downwardly through the holes 4t) and 41 as clearly shownin the drawings. Converging as these nails do, they have a clutchingaction on the soil 46 and firmly anchor the device 10 on the ground soit will not be disturbed from its position by its use.

To practice driving with device 10, a golfer takes his proper stance,facing this device and in front of the same, so that when he holds hisdriver club in his hands, as in readiness for driving a golf ball, andwith the head 50 of his club 51 disposed on the same level with andopposite the hose 12, he is in the proper position to practice a drivewith this device. The driver then draws the club 51 back and swings withit on the hose 12 just as if the latter were a golf ball. The blow thusdelivered against the hose 12 causes it to flex relative to the grippedend portion 27 of the hose and vibrate rapidly back and forth asindicated by broken lines 60 inFig. l.

The sound of the slap made by the club striking the tubing 12 indicateswhether or not the blow delivered against the hose was square on thenose or whether itv was a slice or a hook. The golfer using the device10 quickly becomes familiar with the significance of the sound yproducedby striking the hose 12 and is thus able to make corrections for errorin any single drive.'V

The hose 12 is highly elastic and willstand up under use in the mannerabove described for long periods without any deterioration in the hose.This is due particular# ly to the manner in which the hose is gripped bythe gripping means13 of the invention. The leather bushing 29 provides acushion' between the rubber hose 12 and the metallic mouth portion 1S ofthe pipe 17, outward from which the hose extends, so as to minimize thestrain `applied to the hose when the latter is violently swung by a blowdelivered there against by a golf club 51. In

trate the bending stresses on the hose 12 in a single transverse plane.

From theabove description, the present invention is seen to provide astriking device for golfers which is simple in construction and adaptedto give satisfactory striking practice to a golfer over a long periodwithout the device suffering substantial damage. It is also clear thatwhen the hose 12 does wear out that this may be readily replaced by anew hose by a very simple operation which can be performed by the ownerof the device without any special tools.

p While only a single embodiment of the invention is` disclosed hereinit is to be understood that various modiiications may be made in thiswithout departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of theappended claims.

I claim: 1. A striking device for practicing golf comprising: basemeans; means for anchoring said base means immovably on the ground,there being a horizontal cylindrical bore formed in said base means,said bore being p spaced a short distance above the ground; acylindrical rubber striking member of a highly resilient characterhaving a butt portion which extends into said bore; and means forsecuring said butt portion of said striking member in said bore toretain said butt portion in a fixed position relative to the ground,said member extending approximately six inches horizontally from saidbase to the extremity of a free end 'portion of said member, said freeend portion yielding readily to a blow struck thereagainst by a golfclub simulating the driving of a golf ball.

2. A combination as in claim l in which said securing means comprisesscrew clamp means for transversely compressing said butt portion of saidmember within said bore, said means being readily releasable forreplacing said member in said device.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS D.165,196 smolarek Nm/.'13, 1951 1,804,040 Tannehiu May 5, 1931 2,006,137Grisso Iune 25, 1935

